Amazon Reveals the Most Well-Read Cities in America

This morning, Amazon unveiled its second annual list of the Most Well-Read Cities in America — at least if we’re taking “well-read” to mean “buys a lot of stuff from Amazon,” that is. According to the press release, ”the ranking was determined by compiling sales data of all book, magazine and newspaper sales in both print and Kindle format since June 1, 2011, on a per capita basis in cities with more than 100,000 residents.” So, that’s a rather loose definition of “well-read,” but we’re not going to judge. Some fun facts from the release: Berkeley residents ordered the most travel books, those healthy exercisers in Boulder bought the most books in the Health, Fitness & Dieting category, Cambridge kids cleaned out the Business & Investing category, and Alexandria, which topped the entire list, did so by ordering tons of romance novels. No word on which city ordered the most literary fiction, memoirs or nonfiction, though. Any guesses? Click through to see where your city stands on Amazon’s Most Well-Read Cities in America list, and let us know what you think in the comments.

1. Alexandria, VA

2. Cambridge, MA

3. Berkeley, CA

4. Ann Arbor, MI

5. Boulder, CO

6. Miami

7. Arlington, VA

8. Gainesville, FL

9. Washington, DC

10. Salt Lake City

11. Pittsburgh

12. Knoxville, TN

13. Seattle

14. Orlando, FL

15. Columbia, SC

16. Bellevue, WA

17. Cincinnati

18. St. Louis

19. Atlanta

20. Richmond, VA

[via GalleyCat]

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Most of these cities have major colleges and universities located within them - kids are buying books for their classes.

Powell's is my second home! And don't forget Kinokuniya, small but mighty! :D

Why shop at Amazon when we have Powell's City of Books right down the street? As yet another Portlander, I think this list is silly.

Second what Kristen M. said! Portland would be up there, but we've got all the indie stores, libraries, ebook readers, etc. I am always so proud when I ride the MAX to uni and almost everyone in the car is reading something :)

I don't stop reading. If I'm not at work, I'm reading. Heck, I often read AT work. That being said, I do not typically patronize Amazon when it comes to books. In my area, book sales are a HUGE deal come spring/summer. Just about every library in the state gathers books throughout the year and sells them for $0.25-$25.00 at a giant free-for-all sale. Aside from getting goods reads for cheap, you get to participate in awesome scavenger hunts. The rush of it is unreal at some of them! You'd think it were Black Friday at Walmart.

They have to normalize for how much each city shops on amazon, period, or this doesn't mean anything. If you live next to a bookstore (big cities) then why would you pay shipping costs to shop on amazon and wait for it to arrive? Then normalize for population and income, and maybe you'll be getting some meaningful data. Not useful, but at least slightly better than if they just made something up.

I never buy books at Amazon preferring to support my local bookstores. And I am a voracious reader. My home, Berkeley is listed as number three and is home to numerous brick and mortar stores selling books which would not be included in this "survey" (not sure what to call it). All this tells you is where large numbers of people shop at Amazon and nothing more.

To equate buying books with reading books is silly for so many reasons -- libraries, indies, used bookstores. I think it's obvious from the fact that Portland isn't on this list that these results are greatly skewed by the existence of large independent bookstores.